Grand Duchy 110

Grand Duchy of Adventure

Session 110
January 13-30, 2017

Clearing the Vault

Loshdain, 9th of Klarmont

The final chambers of the Vault

The heavy door opens into yet another chamber. This one is similar to the others, though dry. There is much debris around the edges of this chamber. A makeshift throne sits on the far wall, opposite the door. It looks like it has been constructed from scavenged debris. Iris and Draven both agree that this may have been a private study of whoever was in charge of the Vault of Elders. From the doorway it is hard to tell, but the debris on the ground around the edges of the room appear to be wood and books and such, possibly bookshelves or tables and the like. The thin layer of dirt, grime and debris on the floor in the middle of the room is disturbed in many places, back and forth around the room, possibly the shamblings of several Mummies recently. No other doors are visible in this next chamber though there is still one door to the west in the room everyone has gathered in currently.

Griffin and Ree stand back, watching the room and the unopened door, Remar hangs back by the archway leading to the Hall of Heroes, still intrigued by the magical fire that burns but does not leave a mark. Kasiex, Iris and Draven crowd around the door leading to the next room, examining it without entering.

“I’m fully ready to go in there myself, but we might be best served if those who can read Hutakaan were to do the bulk of evaluating what we find…”

Kasiex nods. “I go. Scholar follows.  You grab if more unseen fire, pull her back out. Yes?”

While the others determine which way everyone will go, Remar looks longingly back toward the purple, fiery corridor they came from.  If ye tink dat’s interestin’, wait till someone slaps one o’ yer colleagues wit a burnin’ death spell!  What?  Why would I be interested in that?  That’s a necromantic spell, not real fire like this purple, invisibly-burning, conflagration….Right?

Clearly eager, Iris bounces on her toes and says, “Absolutely, Kasiex!  That sounds great. I’m itching to see if we can find any clues as to exactly why mummies were placed here and by whom!”  

Draven rolls his eyes and mutters to himself, “obviously, placed here by a faith that doesn’t understand that a prohibition against necromancy is the only sensible course…”

Kasiex enters the room with Iris following closely. Everyone watches intently as he enters but no flames or other dangerous events seem to happen. After a few more moments, everyone else feels it is safe to enter.

Remar follows the others and takes up a cover position at this new entrance.

Kas leads Iris cautiously, wary and alert for any traps the sentient guardian may have left.  He leverages his tracking skills, looking through the tracks for paths that appear more independent and purposeful than the obvious tracks left by what he can only assume were the lesser mummy-creatures.  Hopefully such a path will give them clues as to why the Mummy lord chose to make its lair in this room, why it wrecked the furnishings, and possibly indicate hidden passages…

As he hunts, the Hutaaka keeps a running commentary of answers to Iris’ barrage of questions.  

The only regular tracks that Kasiex can make out go from the makeshift throne to the door the group just entered through. There are plenty of other disturbances through the debris and filth on the floor, but they seem to meander all about the place and no clear path or pattern can be discerned.

Griffin does his thing, methodically evaluating the other exit from the room as well as whether there are exits or traps that might not be obvious. He apparently likes this, as he whistles as he passes his flaming sword over the walls, or inspects the doorframes.

Griffin spend a good amount of time checking out the room immediately past the dangerous Hall of Heroes for traps and secrets while the others poke around in the next room. After some time, he decides that there are no secret or hidden surprises here and moves into the chamber where the majority of his companions are. With Iris guiding them, they have sifted through and sorted what initially looked like piles of refuse but upon closer examination, appear to be torn out pages from books, scraps of parchments and fragments of scrolls and other texts. Right in the center of the room, though, rests a pile that can only be trash. The unreadable and unrecoverable information that was once housed here in the Vault. Iris, in her best scholarly voice, directs everyone to be very careful and deliberate while handling the delicate scraps of paper and parchment, trying very hard to not lose any more of the ancient information.

Going through all the debris and carefully checking the room for further secrets takes considerable time. At one point, the group stops their sorting of deteriorating paper and checks out the other door leading from the antechamber. The room beyond looks as if it may have once been a bed chamber, no doubt for the master of the Vault, but it, like many of the other chambers in the vault, everything in here has been ruined both by time and at the black clawed hands of the mummies.

Everything is searched again, just in case, and Iris carefully bundles up all the “valuables” she has found. With no further areas of the Vault to explore, the Company makes their way back to the camp room and the others. Iris is eager to share the salvaged information with Kifein and everyone else is starting to feel a little stifled and trapped in this mountain top tomb.

Iris and Kifein, with some help from Kasiex, pour over the very difficult to read old parchment scraps while everyone else rests and packs to depart the following day. It seems that the raging storms that were plaguing the area earlier in the day have subsided to just a steady torrential downpour. By late in the evening, the rain and wind have stopped and the group beds down for one final night in the Vault of Elders.

Their important work finished for the day, Kasiex cannot contain himself anymore - he displays his newly found blade to Kifein, explaining to her that it was found all untouched on a statue depicting one of his ancestors in the Hall of Heroes, and regaling Iris with the story of his illustrious great great (many times) great grandmother.

Working through Iris as a translator during their downtime, Remar first apologizes to both Kasiex and Kifein.  He’s pretty sure his attempts to communicate in Traldar during this journey have failed and actually caused multiple offenses.  Here-out, the Wizard will recommend he speak through Iris to avoid any confusion.  Remar also excitedly describes the purple fire that invisibly burned anyone except for Kasiex to see if Kifein knows anything about it that may give him some clues on maybe if and how he could acquire such a spell sometime in the future.

Cast of Characters: 

Garrett "Griffin" Constantine, a Thyatian rogue of a gambler from Penhaligon rolled by +Arne Jamtgaard 

Draven Rickart, a Thyatian Acolyte of the Church of Karameikos ministered by +Jason Packer with help from +Patrick Burke 

Remar Umerus, an Alphatian battle mage that escaped forced service in the Thyatian army currently marshalled by +Patrick Kelly 

Iris Varda, a Thyatian explorer and historian searching for answers and adventure, now guided by +Stephanie Kelly 

Kasiex, a Hutaakan Wildsteward used to ranging the mountains and valleys now led down a new path by +Patrick Burke 

and +Jason Woollard as The DM